Duke Names DeLuca as Volunteer Assistant Coach for 2014
Season

Defending NCAA champion Duke has named former Cornell head coach
Ben DeLuca as a volunteer assistant coach for the 2014 season, Blue
Devils head coach John Danowski said Wednesday, saying it's a great
fit "on all sorts of different levels."

DeLuca will replace former assistant Joe Cinosky, who left Duke
last month to replace Travis Johnson as the full-time assistant at
Mount St. Mary's. Johnson became the first coach of NJIT. Inside
Lacrosse first reported the DeLuca hire Wednesday morning.

"I had been thinking about it," Danowski told Lacrosse
Magazine. "It's a no-brainer for us. We replace a defensive
coach with a defensive coach who has a lot of experience, but more
importantly is a terrific person, great character, somebody that I
can learn from, somebody that our coaching staff can learn from and
most importantly, my kids can. We always have a lot of fun
coaching. We always make the sure the right personalities are
involved, so he just seemed to fit."

DeLuca, who in addition to coaching the Big Red to a final four
appearance against, go figure, Duke, last year — was an
evaluator at Team USA tryouts over the summer, and was on the
sideline at Champion Challenge Jan. 24-26 as a volunteer scouting
consultant for head coach Richie Meade's staff.

At Duke, DeLuca will work with a defense that returns starting
long-stick midfielder Luke Duprey and defensemen Chris Hipps and
Henry Lobb, all Major League Lacrosse draft picks last month.

Carroll, 29, tore his ACL while attempting a comeback with Duke
this time last year, and was only able to practice with the Blue
Devils a few days a week in the fall given graduate school and
family responsibilites. He has two young children.

"Coming back, it's all about figuring out where your place is on
the field and how the whole rhythm of the game goes again," Carroll
told LM on Tuesday night. "My teammates and coaches have been extra
patient with me while I try to figure all this stuff out."

DeLuca will now be one of those coaches.

Check back to LaxMagazine.com on Friday for a full season preview
for the No. 1 Blue Devils.